Candlestick
by BridgitKiido
Disclaimer: I don't own GX. I am not making money off of this. I am doing this for fun. Please don't hurt me.
Timeline Notes: They're pretty much the same as the first chapter. Again, if you're caught up with the English dub, you should be more than fine.
Things were going fairly smoothly now. Well, considering the circumstances, anyway. Fubuki still got glares whenever he set foot in the Obelisk B-White dining hall – he didn't particularly mind, as it gave him an excuse to eat outside. And as long as he snuck in through the window, no one gave him a hassle about staying in his own room, so he didn't have to move. (He liked going through the window, anyway. It made him feel like a ninja.) Yeah, he spent a lot more time than usual down by the beach, but he certainly couldn't say that the exercise was bad for him.
But then, something very much unexpected occurred.
"Excuse me, are you Fubuki Tenjoin?"
The Blizzard Prince, who had just finished a round of surfing and was currently toweling off, tilted his head at the person asking. There was no way that this guy was a teenager – he had to be twenty two at the youngest. He wore your average Obelisk Blue uniform, which was rare in and of itself to see these days – the only people Fubuki had seen from that dorm recently who hadn't converted to wearing only white, besides himself, were Momoe and Junko. And his hair was somewhat odd too, being blue with a single tuft of white in the middle. "Yes, that's me. And you are…?"
The mystery man held out his hand. "Takuma Saiou. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tenjoin-san."
Fubuki accepted the handshake that had been offered with a smile, but then realized something. "Saiou… that name sounds familiar. Aren't you the person everyone at the Obelisk Blue dorm is currently obsessing over? The leader of the Hikari no Kessha?"
"Yes," replied Saiou, in an almost hissing tone.
Fubuki gulped. "So, you're probably here to get me to join your cult, aren't you."
"It's not a cult, and I am not here to get you to join."
Fubuki internally breathed a sigh of relief.
"In truth, you should have seen the Light and joined about two weeks ago, but something caused you to defy your destiny and resist."
Wait… two weeks ago? That was about the time he had fallen unconscious after that duel with Manj-White Thunder. They had also mentioned something about him not seeing the Light…
"Therefore, I challenge you to a duel, to test whether you really are able to defy your destiny."
"A duel? Sure thing. I won't go easy on you though. And how about, if I win, you convince Manjoume-kun and Asuka to leave your Hikari no Kessha thing and go back to normal?" Good thing he had brought his duel disk. It was wrapped in a towel, in order to keep it from getting sandy or wet, but he always brought it with him. (School policy.)
Saiou brandished his own duel disk. "That sounds fair. Though I must warn you, I have foreseen that winning this battle is not your destiny."
Fubuki internally rolled his eyes. This guy sounded like a broken record, always talking about destiny.
"Duel!" both of them shouted as each of their Duel Disks displayed a counter of 4000 life points. They each drew a hand.
"As the challenged player, I'll go first," Fubuki said as he drew a card. He then summoned Pitch-Black Warwolf (1600/600) in attack mode and activated the continuous spell Spotlight which raised the wolf's attack points to 1900. "And that ends my turn."
After drawing a card, Saiou summoned Arcana Force I: The Magician (1100/1100) in attack mode. The virtual system flipped a coin, visualized by an image of the card turning around and around; apparently, the coin landed as heads, because the card's image stopped as right side up, and its effect became that the activation of a spell card doubled its attack power for that turn. He then played the spell Arcanatic Deathscythe, sending an Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon from his deck to his graveyard. This also doubled his Magician's attack points to 2200, and Saiou ordered his Magician to attack Fubuki's Warwolf. The total damage, 2200, was enough to knock Fubuki's points down to 1800.
Fubuki then drew a card and grimaced slightly. He had drawn the Red Eyes Black Chick. Why had he put that in his deck again?
…Oh right. He had gone for extra help with Chronos-sensei after losing that match to his sister (well, he was slightly out of shape, having not been around for a good year and a half), and he had suggested that maybe a couple of the dragons would be good to put into the deck. After all, they had the strength that some of his warriors lacked. And he supposed, if he ever became a singer, he might sing at least one song featuring dragons. They were a part of his life, after all, no matter how unwillingly.
So he had included the Red Eyes Black Chick and Dragon. He refused to put in the Red Eyes Darkness Dragon though – it brought back too many horrible memories, and sometimes he swore he could feel something in that card trying to get to him again.
So, Fubuki summoned his Red Eyes Black Chick and, sacrificing it, used its special ability to special summon his Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) in attack mode. He then activated the spell card Inferno Fire Blast, dealing 2400 direct damage to Saiou's life points and bringing him down to 1600 points. Yes, the Magician's attack points were doubled, but that hardly mattered, because the dragon was not allowed to attack this turn, so Fubuki ended his turn by placing two cards face down in his magic and trap zone.
When Saiou drew his card, he smirked. "Well, it appears that destiny is on my side today." He then played the magic card Reverse Reborn to special summon the Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon (2800/2800) from his graveyard in attack mode. The spell card set its effect to be that of its tails position automatically.
"The Moon represents you, Tenjoin-san," Saiou stated calmly. "You have hidden nightmares, deep within your unconscious, causing great emotional anguish. You can either attempt to work through it on your own, or…"
"Let me guess," Fubuki interrupted. "If I join your Hikari no Kessha thingy, you'll help me work through it."
"How'd you guess?"
"That seems to be one of your underlying themes. You're constantly talking about destiny, and you seem to be interested in expanding your cult."
"Not a cult."
"Riiiiiight."
Truth be told, Fubuki was a slight bit shaken by Saiou's words. He hadn't told anyone, outside the people who were allowed to know, about his experience as Darkness. And heck, he hadn't told anyone, not even Asuka, about the fact that he still felt Darkness around him. Saiou, meanwhile, had figured both of those things out. It was slightly unnerving.
"Don't bother to hide it, Tenjoin-san," Saiou mentioned. "I know all about the darkness's effect on your life – mind reading is a very useful ability, you see. And if you join the Hikari no Kessha, the Light will protect you from the darkness ever taking you again. After all, as the saying goes, all the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single burning candle, and the Light is far more than any single candle."
He then activated the spell card Suit of Sword X. The internal coin was flipped and landed as heads, causing all monsters on Fubuki's side of the field to be destroyed. Fubuki gasped slightly as his dragon dissolved into tiny yellow particles. Well, Accursed Ring is useless now…
"Now, Arcana Force XVIII: The Moon, attack Tenjoin-san's life points directly!"
Fubuki, however, had placed two cards face down, not just one. Just as the Moon was about to strike the final blow, Fubuki activated the trap card Ring of Destruction. Destroying the Moon, both Saiou and Fubuki took 2800 points of damage, and both of them hit 0 life points at the exact same time. Somehow, the projected holograms had enough force behind them to knock both of the duelists onto their rears.
A couple minutes passed as both of the young men fought spells of dizziness. Finally, Fubuki managed to stand up and offered Saiou a hand, saying, "That was a good match."
Saiou accepted the help, but replied confusedly, "I don't understand. The darkness is unable to defeat the light, and yet you were able to overcome your destiny."
Fubuki tilted his head. "Supposing I believe all this crazy stuff about destiny, darkness and light, then if it was my destiny to not win, then I guess I followed my destiny. By most tournament rules, when there's a tie, neither player advances." He picked up his surfboard and was about to head inside, but he finished, "And about that candle thing… all the darkness in the world may not be able to extinguish the light of a single burning candle, but you know what?"
"What?" Saiou asked, somewhat curious.
"No matter how bright a candle gets, the light can't prevent the candlestick from creating a shadow."
With that, the Blizzard Prince walked toward his dorm room, leaving a slightly confused Saiou on the beach.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for the very kind reviews. To tell the truth, the one asking if I was going to set Fubuki on fire made me laugh. Honestly, I'm not the kind of person who would set him on fire… purposefully…
This is probably the only actual duel you will ever see me attempt to write, as I barely know the rules to the card game, and from writing this, I realize now that I cannot write duels without them becoming extremely boring. All of the cards played are featured in GX by various characters (though not necessarily Fubuki and Saiou), and I got their statistics from Janime. As for Fubuki's tarot card being the Moon… well, the Moon has to do with the unconscious, which can bring both great inspiration and horrible nightmares. Hopefully, I've managed to characterize Darkness as a force lurking in Fubuki's unconscious mind that helps him, but is also looking for an opportunity to wreak havoc. (And if I'm wrong about the card's meaning, I'm very sorry… I do not claim to be an expert on the Tarot.)
I'm not exactly sure how Spotlight works, but I am assuming for the sake of this fic that if there aren't any monsters on his side of the field, it can't target any of them and therefore gets destroyed. If I'm wrong… well, as I said, I barely know the rules. I'm sorry. It doesn't particularly affect the story though…
Oh, and I have an announcement. Starting…well, today, seeing as here it's way after midnight on the twenty-first, I'm going to be on a trip for two weeks. I'm going to be traveling all across the United States to see various places where my extended family grew up and stuff. I will still be writing as much as I possibly can, and I will update if I have something written and internet access, but I cannot guarantee that I will have internet access every night, and therefore, please don't expect updates at the same speed that I've been going recently. Just thought I'd warn you.